Design Principles at Microsoft

In my foreword to Bill Scott and Theresa Neil’s great book, Designing Web Interfaces, I outlined the role of design principles in the software development process:

“Design principles are the guiding light for any software application. They define and communicate the key characteristics of the product to a wide variety of stakeholders including clients, colleagues, and team members. Design principles articulate the fundamental goals that all decisions can be measured against and thereby keep the pieces of a project moving toward an integrated whole.”

I also detailed the need for design principles to help teams make informed decisions in my recent Parti & The Design Sandwich presentation. So naturally, I was excited to find several examples of design principles in use at Microsoft.

While Microsoft itself admits to design challenges in some of their products, the places where I saw design principles in use produced some pretty interesting product designs. In particular: Windows 7 Desktop, Office 2007, and Microsoft Surface.